Five more corporations have severed ties with the secretive, right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC. The group has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months as the public has become aware of its role in advancing the "Stand Your Ground" gun law initially cited to protect Trayvon Martin’s killer in Florida. The organization has pushed voter suppression bills, union-busting policies and other...

Delegates from 190 countries have gathered at the United Nations to begin talks on the first-ever global agreement regulating the arms trade. According to arms control campaigners, one person every minute dies as a result of armed violence around the world. The global weapons market is valued at more than $60 billion a year, and critics argue that a binding treaty is necessary to prevent guns from flooding into conflict zones and fueling wars...

After a massive corporate exodus prompted by growing scrutiny of its activities, the secretive right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has announced it will stop pushing so-called Stand Your Ground and voter ID laws. Our guest Lisa Graves says this is an attempt by ALEC "to try to keep its donors and try to have the press move along." She notes, "ALEC’s broader agenda, which it calls its jobs agenda, is...

Notorious arms smuggler Viktor Bout, known as the "Merchant of Death," has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiracy to commit terrorism. Our guest, former United Nations arms trafficking investigator Kathi Lynn Austin, says the case allowed American companies to avoid exposure of their collusion with with the U.S. government and private companies linked to Dick Cheney during the Iraq war, even after United Nations...

Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords resigned her seat this week, roughly a year after she was shot through the head during a meeting with constituents outside a Tucson supermarket. The attack left six people dead and 12 others injured. As Giffords steps down, we look at the iconic semi-automatic Glock pistol used in her attack and a number of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. Gun-control advocates have had little success calling...

On Thursday, we’ll speak with Paul M. Barrett, author of "Glock: The Making of America’s Gun," which tells the story of the American gun market as reflected by an Austrian semi-automatic pistol, tracing how it has become a weapon of choice on both sides of the law, in the entertainment industry and among Second Amendment enthusiasts.

Thousands of people gathered Sunday in Tucson, Arizona, for a candlelight vigil remembering the six people killed in last year’s deadly shooting that left Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords gravely wounded. Giffords, still recovering from her injuries, addressed the crowd. Meanwhile, Jared Loughner, who was arrested and charged with attempting to assassinate Giffords, has pleaded not guilty and been found unfit to stand trial because of...

A botched operation to track the flow of guns from the United States into Mexico has prompted the removal of the acting director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the resignation of the U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona. Under the once-secret program known as "Operation Fast and Furious," federal agents encouraged U.S. gun shops to sell thousands of weapons to middlemen for Mexican drug...

Some 70 percent of guns seized in Mexico from 2009 to 2010 came from the United States, according to a new report from three U.S. senators. The report finds Mexican drug cartels are arming themselves with U.S. military-style weapons and urges a strengthening of U.S. regulations to stem the flow of guns to Mexico. It comes as lawmakers are holding hearings into a once-secret government plan to encourage U.S. gun shops to sell thousands of guns...